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Place dossier plate
SheetLA-LAFAYETTE-LA · Lafayette, LA 121,537 pop · income 37th pct · 58 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Lafayette
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lafayette on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Monroe · lowest
36,521
Monroe · lowest
36,521 median HH income
32.2% of the leader · rank #1
Rockwell · near
61,452
Rockwell · near
61,452 median HH income
54.2% of the leader · rank #2
Lafayette · this city
61,454
Lafayette · this city
61,454 median HH income
54.2% of the leader · rank #3
Irondale · near
61,454
Irondale · near
61,454 median HH income
54.2% of the leader · rank #4
Flora · near
61,458
Flora · near
61,458 median HH income
54.2% of the leader · rank #5
Old Monroe · near
61,458
Old Monroe · near
61,458 median HH income
54.2% of the leader · rank #6
Arvada · highest
113,396
Arvada · highest
113,396 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Lafayette on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 121,537.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lafayette - the verdict
Lafayette ranks in the 37th percentile for household income and the 3rd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
37th
percentile, household income
56th
percentile, home value
16th
percentile, median rent
3rd
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Lafayette, LA
121,537 people live in Lafayette, Louisiana - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Lafayette households earn a median of $61,454 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.5%. Home values in Lafayette run a median of $251,300, and the median resident age is 37.1 years. About 40.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Lafayette's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 5413.6 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Lafayette's yearly average temperature at 67.8°F with 66.8 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in Louisiana run below the national norm: the state registers 88.2 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,007 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Louisiana run around $212, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 62.4 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lafayette's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from comparison shortlist to population change to schools and households to work and mobility to reported crime to housing and income to climate and hazard context to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lafayette, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Lafayette?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Louisiana, the closest population matches are Metairie (138,995 residents, $73,256 income); Lake Charles (81,679 residents, $56,864 income); Kenner (65,113 residents, $64,099 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Rochester, MN (121,638 residents); Ann Arbor, MI (121,179 residents); Independence, MO (121,944 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Is Lafayette growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,854 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.5% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
What does the education layer cover for Lafayette?
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 30 public schools within the city match. 40.6% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
What can 58 Census tracts reveal inside Lafayette?
PlainCities matches 58 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Lafayette?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Drive alone
80.4%
Work from home
9.5%
Public transit
0.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 58,451 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lafayette?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 5413.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 137% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Total reported rate
5413.6
Violent rate
1066.1
Property rate
4347.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Lafayette?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
4.1×
Home value
$251,300
Household income
$61,454
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 67.8°F, with 66.8 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Louisiana is 62.4 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
62.4
Annual precipitation
66.8 in
Mean temperature
67.8°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 13.5% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.2 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Louisiana average
D
City profile score · Lafayette, LA
44/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A+
88.2 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share B+
40.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$61,454
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
1,066 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Lafayette profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 92/100 (A+) · 88.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 76/100 (B+) · 40.6%
Household income: 37/100 (F) · $61,454
Poverty rate: 26/100 (F) · 13.5%
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,066 /100k
Where Lafayette sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lafayette's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Lafayette highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Lafayette, LA (this city): home $251,300, crime 5,414/100k
Rochester, MN : home $287,500, crime 1,523/100k
Ann Arbor, MI : home $435,100, crime 2,018/100k
Independence, MO : home $166,400, crime 4,095/100k
College Station, TX : home $326,500, crime 1,273/100k
Clovis, CA : home $453,300, crime 1,911/100k
Arvada, CO : home $600,800, crime 2,765/100k
Lake Charles, LA : home $204,000, crime 3,083/100k
Kenner, LA : home $241,800, crime 3,178/100k
Bossier City, LA : home $192,300, crime 4,593/100k
Shreveport, LA : home $178,100, crime 5,219/100k
Monroe, LA : home $174,800, crime 7,626/100k
How does Lafayette compare to other US cities?
Where Lafayette sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income37% higher than other cities
Home value56% pricier than other cities
Median rent16% pricier than other cities
Safety3% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Louisiana alone, Lafayette ranks #52 of 60 Louisiana cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Lafayette against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Louisiana only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Louisiana-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Lafayette near the bottom of Louisiana's cities
Among the 477 Louisiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lafayette ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lafayette only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#136 of 426
68th percentile in Louisiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 477
0th percentile in Louisiana
Median Home Value
#51 of 419
88th percentile in Louisiana
Poverty Rate
#252 of 475
46th percentile in Louisiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#21 of 477
96th percentile in Louisiana
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Louisiana only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
37th percentile nationally for median household income · 3rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lafayette's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lafayette's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Lafayette's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$251,30044th percentilemore affordable than 44% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Lafayette's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,943 of 15,516
More affordable than 29% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#319 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.1×, Lafayette sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,943 of 15,516 and #319 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$61,454Lafayette, LA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lafayette, LA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Lafayette, LA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)40.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
121,537
Median Income
$61,454
Median Home Value
$251,300
Median Age
37.1
Poverty Rate
13.5%
Labor force participation
59.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
40.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
5413.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1066.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4347.5
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
67.8°F
Annual Precipitation
66.8"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
30
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lafayette's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
121,457 residents
2021
121,536 residents
2022
121,736 residents
2023
122,020 residents
2024
122,688 residents
2025
123,311 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.4%
Carpool
5.6%
Public Transit
0.6%
Walk
2.2%
Work from Home
9.5%
Other
1.7%
Based on 58,451 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Louisiana statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $212
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Louisiana at $212 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Louisiana statewide averages, not a meter reading for Lafayette. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Louisiana's BEA cost-of-living index is 88.2 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Lafayette is $1,007/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Louisiana statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 62.4 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Louisiana statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Lafayette sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lafayette compares to similar-size Louisiana cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.